


Ever After

by Enchantable



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Presumed Dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-17
Updated: 2013-08-17
Packaged: 2017-12-23 20:23:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/930749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enchantable/pseuds/Enchantable
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chuck is dead, Herc is a wreck, Mako is pregnant and the world limps on</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ever After

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Mako finds out she is pregnant with Chucks baby after the film. Angst ensues. Then happiness cause Chuck is found alive if banged up. Also, Hercs reaction to finding out he's gonna be a grandfather when he still thinks his son is dead is to be crazy overprotective.

"What the hell is this?"

The spoon freezes halfway to her mouth as Herc bears down on her. He’s furious, livid even but she can see the brightness in his eyes. Apparently doctor patient confidentiality does not exist when the Marshall is involved. She sets down the spoon and looks at him cooly, waiting for him to continue. When he sees her not reacting he slams his hands on the table.

"Damn it Mako!" He bellows and for a moment he looks so much like Chuck she has to fight for control.

"I found out this morning," she tells him, “no-one knows."

He seems to collapse then, dropping heavily into the seat across from her, running a trembling hand across his face. He doesn’t ask when or how, the drift answers all of those questions. Mako tries to feel bad but she doesn’t. She doesn’t feel anything. When the doctor gives her the news she goes numb and that hasn’t lifted. Max trots to the other side and she bends down and picks him up, settling him in her lap.

"You’re not supposed to lift heavy things," Herc tells her numbly.

Mako nods and offers a piece of bread to the dog.

It take three days for her to cry.

It happens at night. One moment she’s brushing the metallic taste out of her mouth. The next she’s doubled over sobbing desperately. Her arms wrap around her middle as she sobs because Stacker is gone and Chuck is dead and this is all wrong. When the door opens and Raleigh comes in, he crosses the room before she can hide herself and holds her as she weeps for everything they’ve lost.

When she comes out of the bathroom he has some of her clothing in a bag and keeps his arm around her as he guides her to his room.

She doesn’t have to explain to him either. He gets it more than anyone else, especially because he knows a part of her wanted to beat Chuck too. Chuck who could somehow be the most jaded and innocent person. Raleigh knows everything, from their furious sparring to the night he comes into her room, so angry and so unsure. He’s seen the tears in her eyes as she shouts to Stacker and then the horror as it all goes hot and white and she never gets to say goodbye to Chuck.

He knows everything and he protects her from as much as he can.

No reporters get near her and when people start to whisper he silences them. She thinks he would fight Herc for her but she doesn’t let it happen. She knows that as much as she would like for this situation to just involve her, it doesn’t. But Raleigh seems to get Herc to understand that as much as he would like it to be just about him, it isn’t quite that either. When the older pilot grunts out a rough apology Mako smiles for the first time and lets him lift Max up to kiss her.

They become her protectors. 

Mako wants to strangle them half the time but then she remembers that she’s carrying the son of a fallen pilot. He was her comrade in arms too, but they’ve both done this for other pilot’s—well, they’ve done it for women who are left behind before. It’s a strange time for all of them as the world limps on. They are relics and sometimes, in her darkest moments, Mako thinks they were meant to die with their Jaegers. In her lightest she’s glad they didn’t.

She hates being pregnant. Truly she loathes it. It happens gradually, subtly at first but to her it is unbearable. She is small and compact. She’s trained out any weakness through endless hours. But there is no training for emotional swells or the fact that her body is no longer entirely her own. Only the small movements of the child inside her make her feel like any of this is alright. At night she lays awake for as long as she can, her hands pressed to her stomach. 

It makes her love Chuck more. 

It shouldn’t, she tells herself. It shouldn’t because there are still times when Mako isn’t sure she loved him at all. She can think of dozens of reasons why she shouldn’t, why she couldn’t have. Then she thinks of the smile he only showed to her and the way his hands were so shy on her body the first time they fell into bed and she thinks she’ll never love another person. 

For them maternity clothes mean men’s clothes as big as can fit. The three of them have barely any idea what to do because Chuck was born before the Kaiju and the three of them have no experience with anything that’s going on. Not in anything but a medical standpoint and what Herc remembers. They refuse to let her move out of the shatterdome though. The topic comes up precisely once and is never broached again. 

The world limps on and so do they. Still broken and still trying to figure out what they’re supposed to do now. But every day Mako feels herself getting bigger and the baby getting more active. For everything she’s been through the doctors tell her that her pregnancy is normal. Mako tries to believe them but it’s hard. She’s worried—which they also assure her is perfectly normal. 

And then one perfectly normal day it all comes crashing down. 

She’s doing paperwork because that is the only thing she can do between what her doctor wants and what Herc will let her do. Someone comes running down the hallway and she peers out her door to see what’s going on but they blaze past her. She shrugs and turns back to the paperwork as the baby gives an even harder kick than usual. Her hand rubs on the spot as she marks down something with a pen, fighting the urge to go running after the guys to find out what’s up. Not that running is an option. 

She hears someone come up the steps and motions for a moment to finish her calculation. She hears them come further into the room but ignores them as she writes the next thing down. Whatever they want can’t be that important and she doesn’t want to lose her place. Finally though she straightens up and rolls a kink out of her neck before turning around. 

"Hey—"

The greeting falls from his lips as the cocky smile on his face vanishes abruptly. She stares at him, her eyes flooding at the sight of him because she’s fairly sure she isn’t insane. But he’s alive. A choked sound escapes her lips as her hands fly to her belly. The air rushes out of her lungs as she stares at him and realizes she’s forgotten how to inhale. Her legs buckle and he lunges forward. The last thing she’s aware of before everything going white is his voice breaking as he shouts for help. 

She comes to in the infirmary. 

There are still two shapes outside the curtain that surrounds her bed and for a moment she thinks everything is alright. Then she sees the chair next to her bed is occupied and she knows it will never be again. Raleigh looks over at her and she looks back at him, trying very hard not to cry. He immediately sits on the bed next to her and tucks her against his frame as he tells her what’s happened. 

Chuck is alive. 

Chuck’s alive and despite the fact that Mako has spent every minute of the last eight months praying that he is, now that he’s three feet away she has no idea what she’s supposed to do. They—there isn’t a they. There was just the beginnings of one when he died. When the curtain opens and Chuck’s eyes narrow at the sight of Raleigh’s arm around her, she feels even more hopeless. His eyes find hers and the anger seems to evaporate. Raleigh gives her shoulder a squeeze and moves from the bed as Chuck steps awkwardly forward. 

"Hey," he says and his voice is so tentative she almost cries again. 

"Hi," she says instead. He drags a chair over and sits down so she doesn’t have to crane her neck.

"So you’re—" he motions to her belly and she sees his hand tremble. 

She knows this is terrifying to him, that it was terrifying to her too. Because they know the dangers of the world and what it’s like to be raised without parents. He cracks his knuckle nervously and she toys with the edge of the hospital gown before the baby gives a sharp kick as if to say get on with it. 

"We’re having a boy," she says finally, raising her eyes tentatively to his. 

He pales, his eyes locking on her stomach. She sees his fingers twitch and gently reaches out, picking up his hand and laying it against her. The baby kicks hard and a sound somewhere between a laugh and a son escapes Chuck’s mouth. when his eyes find hers, they’re both tearful. 

"He’s strong," he says and Mako laughs.

"Impatient too," she tells him thinking of how active the baby gets before she eats. 

The tears come hot and quick as a sob pulls itself from her throat. It’s like Chuck moves automatically, his hands wrapping around her. She buries her face in his shoulder and sobs harder as he holds her tighter. 

"I thought I didn’t get to say goodbye," she sobs. 

"You haven’t figured out I’m not leaving you again?" He questions, his accent made thicker with emotion. 

She cries for a while and at some points he does too. The doctors hold her for hours before saying she has to stay calm and then tell her to stay off her feet for the next month or so which is pretty much the opposite of calming. To add insult to injury they stick her in a wheelchair and Chuck wheels her back to Raleigh’s room. The two men glare at each other as Raleigh gets her inside and when Chuck lingers in the doorway she wonders if they’re going to fight. but the australian just scratches the back of his neck and looks at her almost hopefully. 

"I’ll see you tomorrow yeah?" he says and Mako nods.

She spends the last month of her pregnancy almost in a state of shock. Mostly because she seems to watch Chuck grow up before her very eyes. He actually thanks Raleigh—albeit gruffly and with plenty of venom-for helping her. And Raleigh, with the same venom, says they’ll rematch when Chuck recovers from the shock of being a dad. 

It’s Herc and Chuck who surprise her the most though. 

Chucks always hated his dad and Mako expects a part of him will continue too. But after he feels the baby kick, there seems to be something different between them. Something like an understanding, like Chuck finally gets the singular force that has dictated his father’s adult life. It’s touching but it makes her ache because she wishes Stacker were here. But Chuck has confirmed he’s dead, his life given nobly to save the world and three very important souls—four if you count the child Mako considers his grandson. 

The world limps on.

And on an entirely otherwise unimportant Sunday, surrounded by the family she could not have imagined in a hundred lifetimes Mako gasps for air as Chuck helps her sit up to deliver their child. He comes into the world as loud as his grandfather and father. She collapses against Chuck, listening to the sound of him crying before the medics lift him up on her chest and she wonders how it’s possible to feel so much love. 

It isn’t until later when Herc and Raleigh have gone off to celebrate and they’re sitting with the baby between them that they realize what they’ve forgotten. 

"Shit he needs a name," Chuck says and Mako gives a glare, "what?"

"You can’t curse around him," she says.

"Why not? Our kids growing up in the Shatterdome, everyone swears," he says, "and swearing in another langue doesn’t mean you don’t," he looks affectionately down at their boy, "unless you’re not planning on teaching him Japanese."

"Don’t be an idiot," she tells him in that language and he looks up at her.

The affection in his eyes doesn’t fade but it shifts as he looks at her. Mako feels oddly self conscious. She’s still swollen and knows she needs to properly shower but she can’t move from the baby. He reaches out, his hand cupping her cheek as his thumb brushes her bottom lip. He gives her all the time in the world to push him away as he leans forward and kisses her for the first time in nine months and three days. 

she leans into the kiss, her teeth nipping lightly at his bottom lip before his tongue slides along the seam of her mouth. She shifts slightly on the bed, angling her body towards him as one of his hands comes to her waist. Only the sound if the baby cooing breaks them apart. She laughs as Chuck smiles at her and then grins at the baby. 

"So, mate," he says to their son. "is it alright if I take your mother out on a date?" 

Mako smiles, emotion clogging her throat because she and Chuck are all out of order. They’ve never been on a date, and nine months ago she doesn’t think he ever would have thought to ask her on one. The baby coos again and she leans her head against Chuck’s shoulder.

"I think that’s a yes."

He presses a kiss to the top of her head. 

"And if I kiss her again?" He asks. 

"I don’t think that would be a problem," she tells him. 

"What if we live happily ever after?" He says and his voice is low, like this is something he could not have dreamed. Mako shifts her head and presses her lips to his jaw. 

"We already are."


End file.
